


Heroic Beginnings

by TechnoLichy



Series: Overwatch: Untold Stories [6]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Agoraphobia, Canon Backstory, Friendship, Gen, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:05:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TechnoLichy/pseuds/TechnoLichy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lena Oxton was the youngest person to ever join Overwatch. She was recruited because she was the best pilot around. But before she became the hero we know today she met a very unique scientist hidden away from the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Lena stood at attention and saluted sharply as Commander Morrison entered his office. It was a spartan affair, stainless steel furniture lacking any personalization, the yellow walls adorned solely with holo displays showing news streams and field reports. The Commander offered her a quick salute and gave her a once over before taking the personnel file drive she held. He sat down and waved for her to do the same. She sat down in a chair next to Mercy, who had told her she had an appointment with the commander.  
He touched his desk and several hard light screens blinked into existence. He places the drive on the desk and an orange circle lit around it as her picture and file filled the monitor he was looking at. He took 5 seconds before closing and tossing her back the drive. She caught it out of sheer reflex but was taken aback as to why he hadn’t read it all.  
“I’ve read everything on that file already.” He said firmly but without malice. “The only problem I had was there was no information on you besides what you did with the RAF. Now I know why.”  
“Sir… I don’t-”  
“They wouldn’t share your age. I’m sorry, you’re just too young to join Overwatch. Give it a few years, and I’m sure you’ll have a chance.” Mercy was about to say something but Lena had to say something first.  
“Bollocks. You’re taking the piss. There is no way I’m letting you wash me out just because I’m young. I’ve worked too hard to get where I am for you to treat me like a little girl.”  
“Lieutenant-” The commander said looking stern.  
“I like her.” Mercy said grinning as she crossed her legs enjoying the show.  
“I’m the best pilot you’ll ever see. And I’ll run the parade ground starkers before take that ‘you’re too young’ shite. I’m-”  
“Lieutenant!” Commander Morrison shouted holding up a hand for her to be silent. She did but she was angry and anyone could tell. He pushed a button on his interface and a voice prompted him for a command. “Prep the Slipstream prototype for a test flight.”  
Lena tried to hide her surprise, she was expecting a fight or a rebuke but she… won? A small woman in and Overwatch uniform entered the room and called for Lena to follow her. 

As she left the office still looking ‘gobsmacked’ Angela smiled at Jack.  
“You like her too don’t you?” Jack let a small smile crack his stern commander face.  
“Of course I do. Sixteen and mouthing off at the commander of a global strike force? Kid’s got heart for miles. If half what her file says is true about her flying skills, she’s gonna be bored test flying the slipstream for years… But I’m not gonna tell her that.”  
“Still… sixteen. ” Mercy rested her chin in her hand. “I thought we were fighting for a world where children could grow up without war.” Jack leaned back in his chair.  
“I never said it was going to be easy.” Jack said remembering how he convinced Angela to join Overwatch. “It’s going to take generations.... But you’re right, it is strange to see someone who can’t buy a beer climb into the most expensive jet ever made.” Angela nodded and stood. “What did you want to see me about?”  
“Oh!” She said with a slight blush. “Just letting you know you’re due for a physical, and to see when you wanted to do it.”  
“How bout after dinner tonight? Pick you up around six?” Angela’s blush deepened and she nodded before walking out the door. He smiled and returned his attention to his monitor that showed Tracer being fitted with the slipstream Interface flight suit. Six technicians worked like dancers to fit each piece of the suit at the same time on both sides. He’d watched them practice this procedure several times and it had never ceased to amaze him.  
But this time it was for a real pilot. The best pilot in any military that Overwatch could draw from. Jack had picked Tracer and knew her age from the beginning, he just wanted to know she was as passionate for flying as her file let on. He was not disappointed when she didn’t accept his bullshit dismissal. He pressed a button on his desk.  
“How are we doing Winston?” he asked into the microphone.  
“Well it’s far from ready for any teleporting but it’s as ready as it ever will be for normal flight.” The deep voice of the Silverback Scientist replied after a short pause.  
“Any safety concerns?”  
“None besides a teenager taking it for a joyride into the ground.” He replied quietly in a huff. Winston did not approve of Jack’s choice of pilot.  
“Winston.” He said in a jokingly stern voice. “Be nice, you might even like her.”  
“Hmpf” is all that came across the speaker before it cut out.  
On the monitor Tracer walked toward the sleek and alien looking jet on the flight deck, technicians holding cables like a dress’ train behind her. She sat in the cockpit and the technicians strapped her in and attached all the cables into the Slipstream’s ports. Her biometrics and neural activity displayed on another of Jack’s monitors and he saw that she was as calm as someone buying groceries.  
Jack decided to not push Winston just yet and opened a video channel to Tracer’s heads up display.  
“Alright Lieutenant,” he said putting the gruff CO attitude to work. He didn’t want Tracer to think she had the job, it would make her cocky or cautious. “This is a maneuverability test. You will ascend to the Slipstream’s ceiling then perform the following maneuvers at speed. Athena will direct you when you’re in the air. If you perform adequately you will be added to the pool of potential pilots. Do you have any questions?”  
“No sir.” She said calmly, not even pausing during her preflight checks.

The Slipstream was a VTOL so take off was a cinch. Traver felt confident despite the strangeness of the cockpit. It was clearly designed by someone who didn’t fly much, or studied only automatic piloted craft. The Instruments were spread out too much and the stick’s fly by wire design gave no feedback at all. Still the plane responded so quickly it bordered on precognition.  
In a few moments she’d reached altitude and converted from hover to jet mode and quickly throttled to speed. As soon as she was high enough over the ocean she accelerated past the sound barrier at an incline. As she raced towards the sky the air became thinner and choppier. The slipstream had smaller wings than other high altitude aircraft and had to compensate with speed. The sky began to darken above her and she knew she was at the edge of the atmosphere.  
She also noticed that the flight suit had been squeezing her to keep blood in her brain so she didn’t pass out. But it was unlike other pressurized suits that she’d worn in that the pressure was almost unnoticeable. She guessed it was some sort of field but that was still scifi as far as she knew.  
“You are now above maximum altitude, recommend you descend.” A robotic female voice toned through her headset.  
“Athena?”  
“Not expecting an AI?” the voice asked accusingly.  
“Nope!” She answered cheerfully, “I didn’t expect a lot of things about this flight! This is wicked!”  
“It is the fastest and most maneuverable aircraft to-date. Winston will be happy to hear your approval.” Athena said, her voice returning to a neutral tone. “Though maybe not today, the flight director has assigned the following maneuvers.” A list descended down her HUD. “And I’ve been told to tell you about the chronal features.”  
“Chronal? Are you talking time travel love?” Trepidation entered her for the first time. Testing planes was one thing, testing universe altering flux capacitors was not something she was comfortable with.  
“The Slipstream will eventually be able to teleport by altering it’s own timeline. But for now you are only allowed to access it’s time perception abilities. Time will appear slower to you and the slipstream than the rest of the world, allowing you quicker reaction times and faster maneuvers.”  
“Athena….On a scale of one to snookered...how safe is that?”  
“Extensive in lab testing has been done on the Chronal drive, there hasn’t been a single failure.” Athena said calmingly.  
“Well then, let’s give it a shot. Are you ready?” Tracer wiggled into her seat testing the restraints. She rolled the slipstream so it was upside down, the acceleration pushed her into the back of the chair so much she hardly felt the effects of flying inverted.  
“On your word Tracer.”  
“Here goes nothing, Now!”  
Time slowed down and the world took a bluish hue. The world still moved quite fast but the relative time difference made a massive difference in flying. She pulled the stick up into an inverted dive and began a corkscrew spin. She was again amazed at the responsiveness of the plane and combined with her added reaction time she had far more time to adjust course than she was used to.  
She had so much time in fact that she was beginning the next maneuver before she had stabilized from the first. She ran down the list and added a few barrel rolls for good measure. As she began to think of a more extreme trick when time returned to normal and she pulled out of her dive to fly level again.  
“Well done, you’ve been instructed to return to the flight deck and be debriefed.”  
.  
Jack looked at the footage and the bio computers. He knew the inertial dampeners would reduce the effect of the massive G-forces Tracer was going through but she effortlessly fought them off. The most interesting thing to Jack was the way her heart rate rose but stayed steady. She was having fun. As she leveled off and he stared at the cockpit camera feed a huge grin spread on her face and she laughed excitedly.  
Jack smiled too. He dialed a number on his desk and a curt voice answered gruffly with a ‘yes?’  
“Cancel the search, we’ve got our pilot.”  
“But you haven’t even see Captain Lewis. He’s going to be offended that you didn’t even consider him.” she complained.  
“Tell him I’m sorry for wasting his time and don’t wish to waste any more. ‘Then tell him I said the Air Force is lucky we’re not taking him.’ That should calm him down.” Jack answered finger hovering over the end call button.  
“And if he’s still mad?”  
“Send him an apologetic box of wine. We’ve got our pilot.” he said ending the call. He wanted to go home and get ready for his date but he needed to do a few things first. He dialed again and Winston answered immediately.  
“Commander...she...that plane shouldn’t have been able to do all that!” he said as soon as his shock covered face appeared.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean that the G-forces and Aero pressure should’ve torn the wings off. She exceeded the plane’s limitations… I don’t know how.”  
“I’ve decided to offer her the Job, is that ok with you?”  
“It’s like she could feel the plane’s stress and compensated for it so perfectly she hardly slowed at all…”  
“Doctor Winston?” he said loudly enough for Winston to focus again. “I’m going to hire her, you can debrief her all you want. Is that ok with you?”  
“Uh sure but… I probably shouldn’t be the one to debrief her… you know how I am at first impressions.”  
“I know Winston, but give her a chance. I think she’s one of the good ones.” Winston looked nervously over his shoulder and at the empty lab he worked in. Some of his coworkers refused to work with a ‘upjumped monkey’ others were just scared. Jack desperately wanted get someone down there with him so he wasn’t alone all the time but he didn’t want him getting hurt again and he was running out of scientific hell holes to put assholes who wouldn’t play ball.  
“I guess... if you’re sure.”  
“I am, she’s going to be working for you on this so we have to get you both up to speed.” he paused and added. “I’ll be there too Winston, don’t worry.”  
“Thank you Commander.”

Jack Walked quickly to the pilot’s ready room where Tracer was told to wait for him. He entered the large room amphitheater and Tracer sat at the front with an angry expression and four of the dozen or so other pilots were grinning and looking at her. Jack could make a few guesses as to why. As he stepped into the room Tracer noticed him and stood at attention saluting instantly. The other pilots mimicked her as he walked to the lectern and returned the salute.  
“At ease.” They all sat down. “I’ve asked Lieutenant Oxton here to show the rest of you the best she can do. She’s been recommended to be head of the project and after what I’ve seen, I think you’ll all find this very entertaining.” Tracers face went stony and he could see her white knuckles as she gripped her armrests. The other pilots grinned evilly. Jack knew half of them had applied for the same position and relished in this kids failure.  
He gestured over the lectern and Athena’s logo appeared under his palm. The lights dimmed and a hologram projector blinked into life. The display showed the external cameras of Tracer’s flight. All the maneuvers performed in rapid succession without pause. Jack watched the color drain from the faces of the rest of the room and a look of confusion come over Tracer’s. As the recording got to the finish of the maneuver list he paused it.  
“And this is what I’m talking about. This is a lack of professionalism that will not be tolerated.” he pressed play and Tracer performed her stunt laughing. He paused it again and Athena raised the lights. Tracer’s face flushed with embarrassment and the rest of the pilots remained in shocked silence. “You don’t joyride the most expensive plane ever made when you’re not even a member of this organization. Do you understand me?”  
“Yes sir.” Tracer said lowering her eyes to the floor.  
“Good.” He walked over to her and took out a small felted box. He handed it to her and she looked up at him surprised. She opened the box to see the golden Overwatch wings pin inside. “Now after you’ve been sworn in, you’re more than welcome to test the Slipstream as much as you want. That is... if you still want the job.”  
“Yes sir!” she said smiling brightly after a stunned pause.  
“Very good, I’ll take you to see the project lead. The rest of you.” he pointed at his eyes than the projector. “You’ve got a lot to learn from her, study up.”

Tracer walked beside him wearing misfitting generic Overwatch uniform pants and shirt. She’d arrived in full dress uniform and didn't’ have a flight suit tailored for her yet. He could sense she wanted to go back and change back into her dress uniform to meet the project lead but he knew Winston disliked military formality and so insisted on going to the lab directly.  
As the doors to the lift closed he cleared his throat.  
“So have you heard of Doctor Winston?” he asked.  
“No sir….should I have?” She answered guiltily.  
“No no…. Just would’ve made this easier. Dr. Winston is a very unique individual and I want you to not make a fuss about his appearance.” The doors opened and Jack and Tracer walked out. Lena laughed and waved him off.  
“You should see my one Aunt she looked like a goril-” She stopped as Winston walked up to meet them. Tracer froze mid word and Jack nudged her gently to get her to close her mouth.  
“Sorry I didn’t mean anythi- I didn’t know- uh… Pleasure to meet you? I’m Tracer.” She stammered holding out her hand. Winston was expecting a negative reaction and was taken aback by her courtesy. He held out his massive hand and tried to grip her hand without hurting her.  
“The pleasure is mine, you can call me Winston. I’ve…. seen your flight footage... can I ask you a few questions?”  
“Sure love! Did you make the Slipstream? It’s the best plane I’ve ever flown!”  
“I did! I had to overcome the additional weight of the Chronal drive but I managed to save weight…” The two walked away from Jack engaged in their conversation forgetting and Jack quietly stepped back into the Elevator and smiled.  
“Couldn’t have gone better.” he said to himself.  
Tracer had spent the rest of the day talking to Winston about the Slipstream and how it could be improved from a pilot’s point of view. He explained to her how he had intended the jet to function and how the eventual teleportation would be deployed. He showed her the test environments he’d set up and showed her the tiny craft warping around the track. She was amazed by everything he’d made and watched each of his experiments in raptured.  
“Oh I’ve lost track of the time it’s almost 10 o’clock.” Tracer looked at her watch in surprise then stifled a yawn.  
“Oh you’re right. I better get heading to Bedfordshire.”  
“Is that in Switzerland? I’ve never heard of it.” Winston said scratching his chin trying to think of where she was talking about.  
“No love,” she said giggling walking towards the door with him. “I mean I’m gonna get some sleep.”  
“Oh...OH! Haha. I get it.” As they got to the lift Tracer stepped on and waited for Winston but he didn’t board with her.  
“Aren’t you going home too?”  
“I uh… I’ve got some things to do in the lab before I can call it a day. Just some paperwork, not to worry.”  
“Ok love, see you tomorrow!” The door closed and Winston walked back to his desk. As he sat down in the large tire he looked over to the large mat he used as a bed. He never left this floor. This was his world. He opened up a video recording from the moon’s surface. He watched it every night, remembering the man who’d recorded it. 

Tracer brushed her teeth in the cheap hotel sink thinking about everything that had happened. She’d gotten the job she never knew she wanted more than anything. She’d flown faster than she’d ever flown before. She met living legends of Overwatch and she even made a friend in her new boss. After she’d rinsed her mouth out she walked over to the cheap flimsy desk and stared long and hard at her wings.  
She picked up the box and ran her index finger along the top of them. She’d been incredibly proud of being accepted into the RAF, and she still was. But this was unprecedented. She allowed herself a short squeal of disbelieving excitement before forcing herself to calm down. She took her laptop out and tapped out a short message to her former squad and mates at home.  
Then she stretched out on the hotel bed, letting the exhaustion and after affects of adrenaline drift her off to sleep.

Winston tapped away at his specially designed keyboard and watched another test of the teleporting miniature slipstream. He increased the frame rate until he could see what he had thought he’d seen. There was a delay between departure and arrival. Not the end of the world but not how it should work he thought. Since it’s to do with time acceleration it should arrive the same time departs as far as perception at real time was concerned.  
“What’cha lookin at?” Tracer said into Winston’s ear, having snuck up close enough to touch him. Winston jumped into the air and grabbed a rope net in the roof. Tracer giggle at Winston’s still surprised face.  
“Don’t do that!” Winston shouted as he calmed down and lowered himself to the floor.  
“Sorry love couldn’t help it, but I got a piece offering!” She held up a punch of bananas and a jar of peanut butter.  
“What’s the peanut butter for?”  
“You’ve never tried both at the same time? You’re in for a treat!”  
After they’d had breakfast, and winston had ordered a palette of peanut butter, they both got to work redesigning the cockpit for the Slipstream. Winston was able to build a virtual cockpit around tracer and slowly adjust the layout until Tracer approved. The process took longer than they thought, after they thought they were finished Tracer would test it in a hyper realistic simulator. And afterwards want to ever so slightly tweak the HUD or the instruments.  
Winston didn’t complain. While moving an instrument panel 1mm to the right seems like a waste of time, it could have as much as 3% efficiency of eye movement. The whole name of the game was shaving time off reaction times so even that little bit was invaluable. They went through 37 different configurations over several days before they came up with what they both agreed was as close to perfect as they would get without physical testing. So Winston programmed the design into his metal 3D printer and began the print. Even with technology as advanced as Overwatch could get, 3D printing took a long time.  
“You know.... It was really cool to watch at first…” Tracer began rolling her head to look at Winston who had cracked his toes and leaned back in his tire to watch the print. “But after the first twenty minutes it doesn’t hold my interest. And seeing as we’re hours off shift already, is there anywhere I can get a drink?”  
“Aren’t you too young to drink?” Winston said concerned.  
“Only too young for spirits, I can get beer or wine.”  
“Well I know there’s the Canteen on the terrace, they serve just about everything you can think of.”  
“Aces!” She got up, stretched, and headed for the lift. She stopped when Winston didn’t follow. He just sat, looking at his hands. “Aren’t you coming love?”  
“I… don’t really leave the lab.”  
“Why not?”  
“The others… don’t really see past the fur.” he said looking at the floor. “And I don’t want to cause a scene. So… I just stay down here.” Tracer didn’t say anything just walked and sat on the stool she’d pulled up next to Winston to watch the print job. She pulled at his arm and he let her pull it onto her lap. She put her hand in his giant palm and splayed her fingers comparing their size.  
“Bollocks to that I say. You’re doing more for the good of this world than most of us, you deserve to do anything anyone else can do. And if those gobby chavs want to make a fuss then it’s on them not you.” She closed his hand into a fist and bumped it with her own. “What do you say big guy, come to the canteen with me?” Winston looked at her longingly and then looked back at the floor.  
“I… need to keep an eye on this print… don’t want the print to fail.” he said weakly, gently taking his arm out of Tracer’s lap. Tracer paused for a minute and patted his shoulder.  
“OK love, next time.”

Winston laid in the rope hammock he’d hung from the roof trying to fall asleep but not finding it easy. Tracer had sat with him until after midnight when she started to doze off and he’d insisted that she go home and get some sleep. She wanted to say something but he insisted and she relented. Now he was alone in the hangar sized lab and it felt like the loneliest place on Earth.  
He climbed down and went to his computer, queued up a video of the moon and his childhood and watched it until it was over. He considered queueing up another when the lift doors opened. He looked up surprised and saw Tracer carrying a large duffel bag on her back and a sleeping bag in her arms. She walked across the room and he stood up not knowing what to say.  
“I couldn’t sleep… empty hotel rooms seem so… lonely. Can I sleep here tonight?” she asked. He was at a loss for words, no one had ever considered his company a comfort before. Not trusting his mouth he nodded and knuckle-walked quickly to a wall covered in lockers opening and retrieving a folding cot and pillow from the one labeled “Overnight supplies” And setting them up for Tracer.  
She rolled her sleeping bag on it and gave Winston’s huge arm a hug.  
“Thanks love, good night.” She said before she crawled into her sleeping bag.  
“Goodnight.” He choked out before walking over to his sleeping mat and laid down. He listened to her breathing as it became slower and steadier, and eventually he drifted off to sleep as well. Later he would think that he’d never slept as peacefully. 

Jack took a drag from his coffee as he walked towards his office. He had a UN representative coming by for a tour of the facility today and so he wore his Strike commander coat over his paratrooper pants and black combat skin shirt. It was a highly advanced type of body armor and completely impractical out of combat but he’d learned long ago that showmanship got more done than formality.  
He almost walked by Tracer without noticing her but stopped and looked at her then his watch. She was here ludicrously early though he was not in a position to talk. She was wearing the bright orange flight suit that Winston had designed for her and a leather jacket that looked slightly too big for her.  
“Lieutenant?” He asked blearily still trying to wake up. “Is something wrong?”  
“No sir! I was just wondering if... I could ask a favor or two.” she said. He motioned for her to follow him into his office then pointed at one of the plain chairs across from his desk. She sat and he drained his coffee before sitting himself.  
“What can I do for you?”  
“I know this is… a small issue to bring up to the commander, I’m sure you’re very busy-”  
“It’s alright, what is it?” he interrupted Tracer’s nervous babbling. She stopped took a deep breath and composed herself.  
“I would like to live here.”  
“Here? In Switzerland? We kind of assumed that.”  
“No I mean in the building.” Jack almost answered but closed his mouth and tried to get the sleepy gears moving in his head. The only reasonable way she’d have gotten here before him was to spend the night, and there’s only one place security didn’t patrol and that was Winston’s lab.  
“Easier to ask forgiveness than permission?” Jack finally said. Tracer reddened but didn’t back down and instead appeared to get angry.  
“Well how can you let Winston be alone for years down there? He hasn’t seen the sun in ages! It’s not right for him to be so alone!” Tracer nearly shouted. Jack leaned back in his chair unprepared for the accusation in her voice. He opened his side drawer handed Tracer a thick folder. She opened it and flipped through it’s pages.  
“That’s every person I’ve tried to get as a personal assistant, lab assistant, colleague, and researcher I’ve tried to get to work with Winston. Every one of them either refused to work with him out of fear or ego. Getting him out of that lab would be a dream come true Tracer, but no one’s been able to do it.” Tracer’s eyes looked glassy as she looked through the file before slamming it shut.  
“What do I do? He’s so… special. It’s not right for him to be locked away.”  
“I don’t know kiddo, I’ve tried everything I could think of. If you’ve got any ideas I’ll do my best to help.” Tracer looked at the floor for a few seconds before an idea visibly occurred to her.  
“Actually.... I do have an idea.”

TO: WINSTON@OW.NET  
FW: GYSD 

Winston, 

I know you’re not gonna be happy about this but the UN inspector reamed us about not having your lab cleaned in over a year. We’re closing the building off and having all the cleaning droids team up to take on your lab. You can’t be in there when they’re working but they should only take a few hours. Try to get some exercise if possible, Athena and Dr. Ziegler are stereo nagging me about “healthy body’s mean healthy minds” and I can only take so much.

Jack Morrison  
Strike Commander  
Overwatch HQ

MEMO - TO ALL OVERWATCH SWISS HQ STAFF

April 15 is Global Youth Service Day, as such HQ will be closed and all employees have the day off. Employees are also encouraged to volunteer to speak at schools or to assist with service projects. All volunteer work will be reimbursed and flights will be covered.

 

As Jack had predicted Winston was not happy. He tried not to sulk or be grouchy in front of Tracer but it was taxing to hold it in. Jack could have easily spoofed the records to show that the lab was cleaned regularly but he chose not to. Or he purposefully didn’t. But Winston couldn’t see how paying everyone to not work for a day in an elaborate conspiracy to get him out of the lab made any sense.  
He was chewing this over when Tracer stopped the flight simulator she was running and took a deep breath. She stood up and stretched walking over to the 3D printed cockpit. Where winston was scanning for flaws or bubbles in the material.  
“So tomorrow we’re gonna have the whole building to ourselves I hear.”  
“Yeah, it’s ridiculous. The lab is perfectly clean.”  
“I don’t mean to be rude love, but you can smell the lab coming down the lift. It’s mostly the smell of welding and smoke but it could use a little washing up.” Winston gave a self conscious sniff and was able to smell the acrid smell of smoke and as he looked around he saw signs of dust under desks and stains from banana skins around his desk. He sighed and nodded.  
“Ok fine, the lab could use some cleaning. But don’t tell Jack that, or all the sudden we’ll have to stop work every other day.”  
“My lips are sealed.” Tracer said making a lip zipping motion that made winston chuckle which made Tracer smile in turn.

When 10pm struck the building was closed and all the staff save the droids were gone. Tracer decided to try and push her luck. They’d finished what they were working on for the day and were about to fall into the routine they’d established in her first week. They made protein infused milkshakes, watched a movie, then chatted a bit about the RAF or Winston’s time in Overwatch until they were tired enough to sleep. But not today.  
“You know, I’ve never been to any other parts of this building.” Tracer said rolling across the floor on her stool. “Care to show me around?”  
“Well… I don’t really know all that much more than you but. I guess it couldn’t hurt.”  
The two of them rode the elevator to the to the very bottom floor, which was the weapons testing range. Tracer looked at the vast arsenal of unique and experimental firearms and came across a very large rectangular device that had a large carrying handle.  
“What’s this one?” Winston ambled over to it and effortlessly hoisted the giant weapon.  
“I call it the Tesla Cannon. I designed it as an incapacitating weapon that could hit multiple targets.” It powered up and he carried it to the practice range where silhouettes had been cut out of steel. Winston fired the cannon and blue electricity shot out of the end arcing from target to target. He released the trigger and the first five targets all had black marks where the electricity had connected.  
“Wicked!” Traced shouted. “Did you make that too?”  
“I did.” Winston said smiling with pride. “Of course I’m the only one who can use it. This is as small as I could make it.”  
“Well it’s good to have something just for you. Be pretty scary to see you coming with that big thing!”  
“True hahaha, let me see…. I think I have something more your size… Ah! Here, the pulse pistol. I made a sub machine gun using some of the same tech as the slipstream. If you wear this gauntlet you’ll be able to reload by rewinding time on the bullets themselves.”  
“Wouldn’t that undo the damage?” Tracer asked accepting the small machine pistol.  
“I thought it might, my original idea was to make a gun that could be ‘unfired’ if something happened. I thought it might help with friendly fire if you could just undo the damage. But it only affects the bullets not the wounds. You’ll need to wear these, they power the chronal drives.” He handed her the gauntlet that had a small wing down the side. Tracer put them on and waved her arm around not accustomed to the additional weight feeling off balance.  
She took the pistols and pointed them down the range until a steel target popped up and she pulled the triggers. The recoil didn’t feel like much but the spread of the dual pistols was pretty significant. Bullets covered the target from head to toe and in less than 2 seconds she was out. She looked at the pistols trying to find a button or something to reload them before looking at Winston.  
“You have to spin that disk back to engage the drive, it’s the only way I was able to get it to engage the drive.”  
She spun it and felt how little force it took to spin. The little wheel popped out spun and the ammo counter on her visor read 20 again. She fired it again, bringing the spread in slightly and again was out of ammo very quickly.  
“Yeah, I’m trying a few things to increase the ammo capacity but nothing’s really working.”  
Tracer looked at the pistol and remembered the old westerns she’d watched with her mom. She quickly spun the pistol forward on her index finger and caught the grip suddenly. The wheel continued to spin and popped out and reloaded. She did it again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.  
“You got another one? With two of these I bet you could do a lot more damage.” 

The two of them toured the facility in the way kids do, making games of finding different objects or racing to certain parts of the building. Until they got to the mobility range. It was where new grapple hooks and jet packs were tested. There was a giant foam pit in the middle of the 5 story tall room and padded ledges at different heights all over the room. Tracer dared Winston to join her in doing some high dives into the foam pit and the two worked their way up the different ledges until they got to the bridge jumping test level.  
“Can I try one of those?” She said pointing at a rack of jump harnesses on the wall. Winston hesitated, none of them were fully tested. The jump packs were meant for short jumps over long distances or for slowing rapid descent.  
“I don’t think they’re ready… we haven’t quite gotten them right. We’ve had a couple fail in human testing.”  
“Oh come on! I’m a test pilot! What’s the worst that could happen? A tumble into the foam pit?”  
“Well I suppose if I turn the settings down... “ He helped Tracer into the rig which wasn’t easy because she was practically vibrating with excitement. Winston turned it down to a quarter power. “Ok just jump, push that button and aim for the pit.”  
Tracer sprinted to the ledge and leaped into the air. As she did she pressed the button in her hand and the short propulsion boost threw her forward. Winston’s blood ran cold. Time slowed. Tracer was much lighter than the marines who test those jump packs, even at a quarter strength, Tracers under 100lbs was less than a third of the weight of the fully armored marines.  
She got far too much distance and crashed into the padded wall on the other side of the pit with a loud smacking noise. She fell 2 stories into the foam but winston was already falling down to get her.  
“Tracer!” he shouted as he hit the foam and scrambled on top of it. He saw the jump back sticking out of the foam and raced to it pulling her out. She was wincing but was alive and seemed mostly intact. “Are you hurt?”  
“I’m ok big guy….you were right about not rushing into it.” Winston carried her to the side of the pit and set tracer down taking the jump pack off and tossing it aside so she could lay down. He probed gently at her ribs, joints and bones until he poked her ankle and she let out a yelp.  
“I’m taking you to medical. Can you hang onto my back?”  
“Yeah, Aces... I really cocked it up now haven’t I?”  
“No, I miscalculated, should’ve made sure it was safe first. It was my fault.” He didn’t say anything else and carried her quickly to the medical bay. It was mostly empty as it was mainly for emergencies but it was fully stocked and when the building was open was fully staffed. Winston knew a lot about anatomy and biology but was nowhere near a doctor. If it was bad he’d have to call an ambulance.  
As they entered the clinically white and clean wing the lights snapped on and Athena spoke through the overhead speakers.  
“Winston? Is everything alright?”  
“Tracer needs her foot x-rayed.” He said trying not to let the panic he felt into his voice.  
“Take her to bay 5.” she answered lighting a green bath on the floor. Winston followed it and was surprised when he opened the automatic door to see Dr. Ziegler staring in equal surprise at him.  
“Winston? It’s good to see you-” she started before Winston cut her off.  
“Doctor! Can you look at Tracer’s foot?”  
“Set her on the table.” She commanded pulling on gloves and taking on a professional clinical persona that commanded respect. When Dr. Ziegler was in a hospital or med bay her words had god’s authority. “What happened?”  
“I took a spill in the mobility lab, just OW, landed wrong.” She said flinching when Dr Ziegler probed the bone in her ankle.  
“Don’t lie to me Tracer. That’s my only rule, lay back and don’t move.” She said emotionlessly before guiding tracer back and gingerly setting her foot on the table. She crossed the room to a wall and set an angular arch over Tracer’s injured ankle and turned on the screen on top. After a few seconds a green button appeared on the screen and the doctor pressed it. A second later the screen read “image captured” and the doctor pressed another button making the image appear on the large screen in the wall.  
“I miscalculated-” Winston began feeling useless as the doctor worked but Tracer filled the silence.  
“I took one of the jump jets and half cocked jumped into a wall.” Tracer said sitting up on her elbows.  
“Well that is a new one. But I told you not to move.” the doctor pushed her back down and walked over to the wall screen. “When does it hurt?”  
“Only when I move it or someone touches it.” Tracer answered laying still. The doctor rotated the image and moved through the layers of bone trying to find any damage.  
“Well you’re lucky it seems, nothing broken, probably only a torn muscle. Athena, scan the images to see if there’s a microfracture I missed.” She walked over to a PIN locked cabinet and withdrew a syringe filled with a golden glowing liquid.  
“What’s that?” Tracer asked concerned.  
“Liquid metal, hot enough to melt steel like butter.” She said flicking the needle.  
“What?!” Tracer said sitting bolt upright.  
“They’re healing nanites, learn to take a joke and I won’t tell you to lie still again.”  
“Yes ma’am.” Tracer said still looking fearfully at the doctor. She felt the needle for a moment above her ankle and soon felt a warmth spreading down to her toes and up to her head. It felt warm everywhere but it seemed to concentrate on her foot and where she felt she was going to bruise. A moment later she felt all the pain stop and she looked at the doctor in surprise. She just smiled.  
“How does your foot feel?”  
“A...Amazing...I can move it and everything.”  
“Good. Athena?”  
“All damage repaired, no permanent damage.” Athena dutifully reported.  
“Bitte. Now what have we learned dear?”  
“Do what I’m told and don’t play with expensive toys?” Tracer asked sitting up at the Doctor’s sign.  
“Points to you, here.” She said holding out a small loli and Tracer reflexively took it before she realized it was odd for a research director to have candy in her pockets. But Tracer just accepted it as one of those things that was eccentric about Overwatch and she peeled it’s wrapper and put it in her mouth. She didn’t remember passing out seconds later.

“Tracer?!?” Winston shouted making to move before Angela held up her hand.  
“Entschuldigung, but she wouldn’t be willing to take it easy on her foot. She’ll be fine.” Winston deflated and ran his hands down his face before looking at Angela guiltily.  
“I should never have let her try that, I’m sorry.”  
“Just a few bruises, nothing serious. She was trying to impress you.” Angela laughed softly. “She must really look up to you.” he just scratched his head. “So you two have the run of the building tomorrow. Made any plans on what to do?”  
“Not really… honestly I’ve spent more time outside the lab today than I have in the last year. The place looks a lot different.” Angela sat down at her desk and took out a badge she put it on her desk and took out another item from her desk.  
“Well I’ve misplaced my badge, someone could get access to the Commander’s terrace. And this might be a preprogrammed routine the Commander made in case we ever had to have dinner here. If you were to want to do something special, the sunset is gorgeous up there… And the Banana and Tofu risotto is particularly good.” She handed him what looked like USB key and he smiled.  
“Thank you Angela.” He said and walked over to pick up Tracer. He carried her back to the lab and laid her on her cot, then tucked her into her sleeping bag. Looking down on her he felt like he was responsible for her. While he was chronologically around the same age as the young woman he was artificially more developed. He walked to his desk and touched a picture he kept attached to the wall. It was of the man whose name he’d assumed. The man who raised Winston.  
He climbed into the ceiling net and settled in. What must he have been feeling when Winston was learning how to perform research. Was it what he felt working with Tracer? He thought about all the pleasant memories he had of the man he considered his father, and faded into sleep with a smile on his face. 

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Worst Case Scenario

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tracer takes a giant leap for mankind, hopefully someone will be there to catch her.

The next day as promised an army of robot cleaners invaded the lab. Winston had put away all his personal effects in his lockers and Tracer had done the same.  She mostly hopped on one foot partly because she was afraid to put weight on her ankle and partly because she liked the challenge of moving around the lab on one leg.

They were soon ushered to the lift and they went back to exploring the base. They found a rec room near the top floor filled with ping pong, pool, foosball tables and on one wall a half dozen mini theaters.  Tracer pulled a bunch of couches together to make a makeshift seat for winston and she sat in an overstuffed seat herself.

They watched a few movies and a few tv show episodes but eventually got bored and went back to exploring. Winston urged tracer to explore the other labs and the two reveled in all the research being performed there. There were plants that grew exponentially faster on a fraction of water, bomb proof concrete that absorbed CO2 instead of producing it, pellets that provide all the nutrition a soldier needs to survive, bullet proof fabric, and theoretical science that Tracer could only smile and nod at. 

Eventually they went to the hangar to explore all the cutting edge aircraft being developed or stored. The Slipstream was by far the most advanced but that was at such a high level and cost of production that Overwatch had designed numerous mid range vehicles. Tracer took an immediate shine to a personnel carrier she thought looked like a bi-plane.

“Come on big guy, I’ve been to your world for months. Let me show you my world.” Winston looked at the craft nervously but didn’t want to show how much he didn’t want to get on that plane. It felt like he just blinked and Tracer was strapped into the pilot’s chair with Winston white knuckling industrial anchors in the cargo area. What followed was the most harrowing and exhilarating flight of Winston’s life.

 

“Wow this is the dog’s bollocks!” Tracer said running over to the terrace balcony. “How’d you get access to this?”

“I have my ways.” Winston said laughing, sliding Mercy’s card over a wall reader prompting a small army of robots to come out and set a table for the two of them. Tracer vibrated with excitement as each robot came out carrying a new dish or a drink. 

“This is amazing. Overwatch is much more fun than the RAF!”

“Did you not like the RAF?” Winston asked forcing himself not to devour the banana dish Mercy suggested. 

“No I loved it, but Overwatch is so much bigger! And more romantic!” Tracer said standing with a foot on her chair and pointing a fork in the sky. “The RAF defends England but now I defend the world!”

She sat back down giggling, the effects of the wine clearing in action. 

“Plus I’m gonna get to time travel! I might be the next doctor!” 

“I love that show! We’ll do everything we can to make you the next British time traveler the world looks up to.” Winston said raising his glass.

“I’ll drink to that!” 

  
  


Over the next couple days, the Slipstream was completed and an army of researchers that technically worked for Winston went about testing it on the ground as much as could be done. Sooner than anyone thought likely the Slipstream was ready for its first real world test.

  
  
  


“Tracer… are you ready?” Winston looked frazzled on the vid comms, he’d obviously not slept a wink the night before the big test.  Tracer hadn’t slept much either but she was more excited than concerned.

“Yeah love, we’re going to do great! I’m running pre-flight now, green across the board. How bout your end? Chronal accelerator to knees up?”

“I think so, it’s as safe as I can make it. All of my trials have shown that organics and vehicles pass safely through. We just have to try it out in full scale, the plane made a short jump with no trouble yesterday so in theory it’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Don’t lose the plot big guy, we’ll pull it off, you’ll see. I’ll call you back in a bit, I need to get kitted out, always a good day when I can wear the suit!”

Winston waved and smiled before ending the call as Tracer finished looking over the jet. She then walked into a room where the six technicians performed their ballet rigging up the Slipstream’s flightsuit. They seemed even more practiced and familiar than the first time she’d been fitted, perhaps they’d been practicing on her suit in particular.

As tracer sank into the acceleration couch and got strapped in, she looked at her extended hands and saw they were steady as stone. She felt more apprehension testing the teleporting functions than she felt testing a parachute for the first time, but it didn’t show and that’s how she wanted it.

“Tracer, I see you’re excited to get this test started?” Athena’s voice piped into her helmet. “While the chronal drive is charging, do you want to test the modifications you and Winston have made?” 

“Sure soon as I get in the air.” Tracer said without the usual mirth. 

 

Jack sipped his coffee as most of the Admin team watched the test from the ready room. Angela came and sat against the railing across from him. 

“Nervous?” She asked.

“Winston is nervous, that makes me nervous.”

“If he’s concerned shouldn’t we halt the testing?”

“Not my call. He can’t find any flaw with the science and all of the other researchers are bottlenecked waiting for this test. I have to defer.”

“Somehow that’s not very comforting...” Angela deadpanned. 

“I was hoping you could comfort me.”

The entire room turned to look at the large figure moving off the lift. Winston walked into the ready room standing tall. Angela smiled brightly, Jack tried to hide his surprise and the rest of the room was shocked into silence. 

“Do you mind if I observe from up here?”

“Not at all, Adams. Get Dr. Winston’s station ready. The rest of you, focus! This is the real deal people!”

The room once again bustled with activity and a console designed to mirror Winston’s lab setup booted. Angela smiled at Jack before leaning in and whispering to him.

“You’ve been waiting for this day for a while now.” Jack just winked at her and went back to staring nervously at the status monitors.  He brought up the pilot camera and saw Tracer’s vitals displayed next to a view of the tiny cockpit.

“Elevated, but stable.” Mercy commented. 

“Alright, it’s your show Winston.” Jack said giving his console admin rights to begin the test. Winston spoke into his headset and Tracer took off. The flight was as textbook as could be and when the craft reached ideal speed and altitude Winston looked over his shoulder.

“T-10 till initiate. Tracer I’m setting the time dilation to 3 seconds, prepare to engage on my mark.”

“Copy that.” Tracer’s voice said over the loudspeakers. The camera showed her turning a key on the chronal accelerator panel and hover her thumb over a button on her joystick. “Ready for your mark.”

“5...4...3...2...1...Mark!” Winston said firmly. Tracer pressed the button and the camera disappeared. That wasn’t unexpected so nobody reacted with surprise. Three seconds and ‘no signal’ occupied all of the status boards. 

“Telemetry?” Winston asked panicked.

“Loss of Signal.”

“Radar?”

“L.O.S.”

“Visual?”

“L.O.S.”

“Satellite?”

“L.O.S.”

A long moment of silence passed as Winston tried to reacquire Tracer. Mercy covered her mouth as Jack stepped forward.

“Shut the doors. I want Search and Rescue mobilized now. 

  
  


Jack stroked the sandpaper texture of his 5 o'clock shadow watching helmet cams and radar reports roll in for the third day in a row. Winston had covered his lab in calculations desperately working with Athena to check his math. 

His desk phone rang and he saw that it was a US naval designation.

“Commander Morrison. Have you found her?”

“Captain Simmons, No sir… we found the craft. It water landed in the Atlantic.”

“That’s great news, any chance I can ask you to commence search for her lifeboat?”

“Sir?”

“That craft’s ejection pod turns into a bright orange raft, it’ll have a-”

“Sir…” The captain interrupted. “There was no ejection. As far as we can tell the pilot disappeared. The hatch isn’t even open.”

“...Thank you captain… I might have one of my researchers contact you if need be.”

“Anything you need commander.”

  
  


**ONE MONTH LATER**

 

Jack got off the lift and shielded his eyes from the flares from welding torches wielded by an army of small droids. Winston sat in his tire furiously typing into his console. Jack skirted around the droids and looked at several of the screens Winston had haphazardly bolted to the wall. It looked like gibberish to Jack, he could see that they were test results but couldn’t decipher what the test was.

“Winston… We’ve noticed you’ve been using a lot of supercomputer time…” Jack said softly trying not to surprise the busy scientist. “Mind if I ask what you’re up to?”

“I’m building a chronal accelerator chamber. It’s proving difficult to maintain the fields required even in simulation.” Winston answered without looking up.

“You know the slipstream project’s been halted right? We need to get more information about what happened before we try anything else.”

“Unlike everyone else I haven’t given up on Tracer.”

“Winston… Every scientist we’ve had looking for her agrees that she’s gone. Even if she’s not… with no means of controlling her time...she won’t be able to come back. Everyone thinks so.”

“Everyone but me! The one who built the damn thing!” Winston roared, standing at his full height above the veteran soldier. “I know she’s still out there and I’m not giving up! She just needs to find her way here when I finish the anchor!”

Jack stood very still, if he was intimidated by Winston’s rage he didn’t let it show even a little. He just looked back at the monitors for several long seconds.

“You’re sure she’s out there?”

“I am.” Winston said, lowering back into the tire. “I’m-”

“Then get her back. Whatever it takes. Athena.” 

“Yes Commander?” The AI answered over the com system in Winston’s desk.

“Anything Winston needs to complete his project is pre-approved. Any trouble let me know.”

“Understood. What budget should I use for current requests?” 

“Let me worry about the funds.” Jack turned back to Winston and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. To those that knew him best, this was his most sincere. Jack gave speeches more than anything else in his job. Silence spoke more to heart.

“Thank you Jack.” 

He just nodded and walked away. As he got into the lift Ana silently stepped from the shadows into the lift with him and unloaded her tranquilizer gun without saying a word.

  
  
  


“Oxton! Get a move on!” 

“Sir!” Tracer stood and saluted before she could remember where she was. She lowered her hand and looked at them. They seemed fine but felt distant like she was looking at something in the distance.

“You taking my name cause you forgot yours?” Tracer turned and looked into the face of a man she’d seen a million times but never spoke to once. He was tall and slim with a narrow chin and large brown eyes. It was her father sticking his hand out. “I’m Lewis. Looks like you’re my new copilot.”

“I’m… Lena…” Tracer finally said weakly putting her hand into her father’s firm grip, still too shocked to say more. If her father noticed her surprise he didn’t show it.

“That’s my baby’s name! Small world isn’t it!”

“How is this possible...”

“Well the omnics are attacking… and we’re pilots in the RAF… so we’re going to stop them?”

“Wait… what year is it?” 

“You alright love?”

“Uh… yeah… I guess I’m just confused.” Tracer looked around at the RAF barracks trying to figure out what was going on. She looked down and saw she was wearing a slightly outdated RAF flight suit and was holding a helmet.

“We’ll sort it out when we’re in the air.” Lewis said patting her shoulder and walking towards the hangar entrance quickly. Tracer quickly caught up to him and matched his stride.

“So…” Tracer began thinking of all the things she wished she could ask her father but never could. “Did you always want to be a pilot?”

“What is this, an interview?” Lewis said with a laugh.

“Just nerves I guess. Chatting calms me down.”

“Well yeah my great grandfather was a Pilot in World war II and I used to look at his old pictures and medals thinking, what could be a better job than flying? Hasn’t been a mistake yet. How about you?”

“I… my father was a pilot. I’ve never wanted anything else… would you be proud if your little girl became a pilot?” Tracer asked timidly. They’d just reached the hangar door and Lewis turned to look at Tracer. He looked a bit puzzled.

“Your mum not approve?”

“Well… she doesn’t disapprove… she just thinks it’s too dangerous for what I get paid.”

“Ha! Sounds like my wife!” Lewis opened the door and led the way to an orange painted heavy fighter jet. Tracer recognized the model and it was basically what she’d learn how to fly jets in so she absent mindedly began preflight checks.

“To answer your question lass, I’m already proud of my little girl. All I want for her is to live her life to fullest… But if she becomes a pilot I’ll be chuffed to bits. Just don’t tell her mother.” Lewis said with a wink. 

Tracer smiled wide and followed Lewis in climbing into the cockpit. Tracer strapped into the copilot seat and looked over the instrumentation. As she booted systems in the plane the canopy lowered and sealed and flight suit diagnostics confirmed they were ready for take off.

“What’s your call sign by the way, I’m Ox?”

“Creative.” she giggled. “I’m Tracer.” 

“That’s good, I like that.”

Tracer felt her body go numb and checked to see if her suit pressure had failed but she couldn’t seem to move her arm. Time seemed to freeze and the world around her blurred and as she looked at her hands she saw them stretching away into infinity.

  
  


**2 Months after the incident**

  
  


Winston dipped a banana into his last jar of peanut butter and stared at the dome he’d constructed. It was far from complete despite it being worked on 24/7 since the incident. The form itself was done, but it wasn’t functioning as he’d hoped. There was just no telling if Tracer would be able to find it.  He’d been working on this non stop for two months and he couldn’t prove it could work even in theory. 

Without a hint of success and at the massive expenditure of energy to maintain the fields, even Jack’s hope wouldn’t last. Already he was getting complaints from the reactor team that he was degrading the cables with extreme usage. What could he do? 

With that thought tears welled up in his eyes and a giant grief ridden shudder rocked his body. He pounded on the steel floor feeling it buckle under the force. What was he with all his strength and intelligence if all he did with it was hurt the ones he loved.

“Winston dear.” he heard Angela say before she wrapped her arms around his neck. He gently wrapped an arm around her back and let the despair that had built up over two months to flow. He sobbed, or so he imagined, for ages as Mercy held him. 

“You can’t give up Winston.” she whispered.

“I don’t know what to do Mercy… I can’t tell if it works. I can’t tell if she’s actually fluctuating in time or not… I don’t know.” Winston felt Mercy’s arms leave his neck and take off his fogged and smeared glasses off his face.

“That’s why I’m here. There’s news.” Mercy took a lens cloth from her lab coat and cleaned Winston’s glasses. “There was a spectral figure spotted on an RAF airfield 3 hours ago. It said it’s name was Lena, then it asked what year it was.”

“That means…” Winston stoop straighter, his mind alight with ideas and conclusions. “She is out there, she is fluctuating years, and… the RAF field. Was it where she was stationed?”

“I don’t know.” Mercy said putting his glasses back on. “I came here as soon as I heard about it. You were right. And you are her only hope.”

“We need to find out why she showed up there, if we can figure out why she showed up there we can figure out how to make her appear in the field.”

“I’ll look through her records, see if it was where she learned to fly or something.” Mercy said heading for the lift. As she got to it the doors opened and Jack walked off with a folder in his hands.

“Athena let me know as soon as she heard you find out.” he said as explanation as he walked to an empty work table taking the items out of the folder and spreading them out. “Tracer never set foot on that base, it hasn’t been an active airfield since the beginning of the war.”

Winston flipped through Tracer’s service record trying to find a hint as to why this base. Mercy looked at the intel folder on the base itself, while Jack used the smart table to bring up a map of the facility and used the police reports to detail where the event took place. Mercy got to a page and looked at where Jack had circled.

“You’re sure it’s there?” she asked, pulling a page out and handing it to Jack.

“Positive. So it used to be the pilot’s dorm? Could it just be where she’d go if she was stationed there?”

“That would make sense. But why wouldn’t it be somewhere she was more attached to?” Winston asked finished reading her short career in the military. “Chronal disassociation doesn’t account for her traveling off her timeline, she’s got to have a connection there.”

“Could it be that she will be stationed there?” Jack asked scratching his chin. “If she’s gone forward we have no idea where she might show up next.”

They were silent for a long time. Going over all the possibilities with each other trying to predict what would happen next. The variety of answers was too much to comfort anyone.

  
  
  


“Mrs. Oxton...” Tracer heard a somber voice say. She looked around her and saw she was in her childhood home. She noticed that several pictures were missing and others stood in their places. Eventually she found the source of the voice she heard. A man in dress uniform stood in the door as her mom held a baby.  “I’m terribly sorry for your loss. Your husband-” 

Lena’s mom dropped to her knees, protecting her baby but unable to stand. The man knelt and continued to talk to her. Lena didn’t hear a word he said. All she heard was her mother crying. The man handed her a box then left.  Her mother set the baby down in a crib then walked to the kitchen where she opened the box and pulled out a leather jacket with the name Oxton stenciled on the shoulder. 

Her mother sobbed and clutched the jacket to her face. Tracer walked over to the crib and looked at the baby’s face. She felt tears on her own cheeks remembering all the times her mother had yelled at her for wearing Dad’s special jacket.  All the times she’d been told about this day. All the times she’d been told how as a baby she silently wept for her father.

“Who are you?” She heard a man’s voice ask over her shoulder. It was an odd scared voice she’d never heard before.

“I’m Lena… this is me as a baby.” She replied. She heard her mother crying louder and the man’s voice asking another question but she couldn’t hear it clearly. She thought it asked what she was thinking of.

“My father.” she answered, not waiting to hear a reply. She just looked into the baby’s familiar watery brown eyes until everything she saw dissolved into nothingness.

  
  


“Got another sighting!” Jack yelled over to Winston, Mercy, and Ana who’d joined in the search. They gathered around the work table as before and Ana pulled up a map of the UK. “She was sighted in her childhood home.”

Jack marked the spot on the map, halfway across the country from the first red dot at the RAF base. Then slid a copy of the police report to each of them. 

“‘This is me as a baby’... sounds like we can eliminate it being her future timeline.” Mercy said reading quickly. “Which means that there’s some other link she has to the airbase.”

“Was her father in the RAF?” Ana asked reaching the end of the report.

“Yes!” Winston shouted excitedly. “He was a pilot in the Omnic war!”

“I bet you cash money she showed up there because of her father.” Jack added. “But how does that make sense, we’re operating under the assumption that she’s traveling along her own timeline. How can she be on her father’s?”

“Well she was alive during the time in question her father was just in another place. Perhaps there’s some link between them that allows Tracer to view his timeline.”

“OK let’s go over the list. They’re both pilots.” Mercy started.

“Both RAF pilots.” Ana added.

“How old was he when he passed?”

“23 years old.” Athena answered pulling up his service record on the work table.

“She’s younger. Did they fly the same plane?” Mercy said rubbing her temples.

“No but he died in plane… Not to equate the two…” Winston mumbled.  “Could be similar enough to make a connection.” The group continued throwing ideas around trying to get a list of connections. Jack leaned on a stool and flipped through Tracer’s personnel files. Eventually he got to a small stack of pictures that’d been included in her personal effects. He looked at the pictures and felt despair for the potential loss of the insanely cheerful pilot. Until he got to a gif file of her trying to look serious in-

“What if…” Jack said interrupting Winston mid-sentence. He thought back to all the interactions he’d had with Tracer. “What if it’s not what they ‘have’ in common, but what they HAVE in common.”

“What do you mean?” Ana asked not looking up from the table. Jack turned his tablet around showing them the picture.

“What if she’s not following her timeline but an object’s timeline? When she asked if she could live here she was wearing this worn looking leather jacket that seemed too big for her. It was stenciled Oxton so I didn’t think anything of it but what if it was her father’s?”

“The first sighting on the base… was when her father died, the sighting at her childhood home… was when the RAF sent it back to the family?” Ana pondered.

“That could be it! The jacket bridged the timelines, she’s been looking for comfort, for what’s familiar. Maybe she’ll keep following it!” Winston leapt to the wall where Tracer’s locker sat. He was prepared to rip the lock off but she didn’t keep it locked. He opened the door and saw the jacket. The leather was soft and faded but well made. 

As he was closing the locker door he saw a the digital picture frame switch from Tracer sitting on an enormous landing gear tire to the picture she’d taken on the terrace of the two of them. 

“I’m gonna get you home.” He ran to the chronal accelrator and powered down the fields. Once it was completely safe he stepped in and gingerly laid the jacket down in the center of the dome. He left and powered it back up rejoining the rest of the group.

“Now what?” Mercy asked.

“We wait.” Jack answered before Winston could reply. “We wait and we hope.”

 

A coughing noise startled Tracer into wakefulness. She felt hot and couldn’t get a deep breath without coughing. It was dark and she could hear explosions and machine gun fire in the distance. It wasn’t until she saw a shadow move that she realized that there was another coughing figure.

“...Lena? You alright?” she heard her father ask.

“Oi… what happened?” Tracer asked feeling the harness around her shoulders release as a her father pressed the release on her chest. She slid onto her side and onto what felt like sand.

“We crashed… and it looks like I’m not gonna make it.” She felt weak and couldn’t feel her legs. She tried to move to look at her father but couldn’t. Soon she felt hands grab her shoulder and haul her onto her back.

“No you’re gonna make it... you have to!” Lena coughed looking down to see streaks of blood in the sand. She looked at her father and felt a pain in her chest as she saw his mangled stumps where his legs should have been. Blood oozed out of the stumps too fast to even think about stopping.

“Sorry lass… I can’t… blood loss…” Lena sat up at the same time that her father fell over into her lap. Lena shook her father hopeful in hopelessness, she knew how this ended. She knew Lewis Oxton died today, here.

“No… Dad! You can’t leave me!” she sobbed hysterically. She buried her face in his chest and cried all the tears she’d shed over her life for his absence all over again for his death. She clutched the lapel of his jacket and pressed her face into his chest. Then she heard the loud sirens of emergency rescue.

She raised her head to look at the flashing light and felt a hand on her cheek. She turned and stared at the glassy eyes of her father who looked at her with recognition, seeing the eyes he’d given her. She put her hand over his and held it to her face. The moment seemed to stretch out forever and all the things she’d wanted to say to him if she’d only had the chance.

She felt a tear roll over their hands.

“Dad…” she sobbed, tightening her grip on his jacket. He closed his eyes gently tears running down his face. She heard the tires brake suddenly in the sand and the sirens had become deafening. 

“Cheers love...calvary’s here…” As he said it she felt the life drain out of his hand and his arm go slack. She screamed her grief as the world brightened until she could see nothing but light.

 

Winston stared dumbfounded at Tracer’s unconscious body in the enclosure. Everyone in the lab was equally awestruck. After months of work, millions of dollars of resources and materials… Tracer was back. No one dared disturb the silence as if it would break the spell and she’d be gone again.

“Am I the only one who sees her?” Winston finally asked nervously.

“I see her too.” Mercy said finally breaking out of her amazement. She pulled open a panel of biometric sensors she’d suggested Winston included in the enclosures’ design. “Vitals are strong, brain waves are normal… I think she’s ok!”

Jack felt weak and woozy clutching the table with a death grip as waves of relief rolled over him like tsunamis. Ana rubbed his back briefly before she excused herself. Mercy threw her arms around Winston crying happily as Winston wept in frenzy of emotion he’d never be able to describe. She was home. 


End file.
